REVIEW: Elephante

Elephante returned to his hometown of Ann Arbor on Thursday evening, and what a homecoming he had. The club was packed upon arrival, with a line going out the door even though we arrived late. We walked in, listening to the beat of the electro music grow more intense as we ascended to the main dance area. The club was teeming with people, even though it was only the opener. Girls with LED light-up shoes, guys wearing glo-paint, people dancing to an infectious beat. This was only the warm up, and my friends and I stood on the upper level to soak in the mildly overwhelming sight before entering the fray.

When Elephante came on, we immediately rushed into the center. Tim Wu (Elephante) told us it was great to be back in his hometown performing for people who were willing to come out on this Thursday to see him. For a DJ, he seemed pretty down to earth to me, like even he couldn’t believe how far he’d come since growing up in Ann Arbor. He began the set and the crowd went berserk. Lights began flashing, and suddenly half the crowd had massive foam glowsticks. I’m being honest when I say I have no idea where they originated from; suddenly everyone just had them. Including me! Somehow I found an abandoned glowstick on the ground and was able to wave it about over my head with the rest of them, flashing green then blue then purple.

Elephante’s set was incredible. Most people seemed to be way more dedicated to his music than I am, and knew almost all the words. I wasn’t that aware of all the songs, but did know enough to participate. He took many popular songs and remixed them, which made it easy for crowd involvement. Elephante himself danced around the booth, sometimes playing a song and spending a majority of it dancing. At the end, he signed off and wished us a good night. Everyone immediately started chanting the concert classic: “ONE MORE SONG!” To my surprise, Elephante appeared after about 2 minutes of this chant and told us he would play us a new song, to be released sometime in November. He said it was one he was incredibly proud of, and most of it was produced rather than remixed. The song had a different vibe than the rest of the music he had just performed for us, but it was a good different. It was really good, actually. He played the song and came down to dance with the crowd; people closed in around him and I was swept up in the general movement toward Elephante. I saw him crowd surfing, being tossed around in the air like he was on a trampoline. Afterwards, he returned to the mic and kindly asked that his shoe be returned.